27928 - Laboratory (1) (LM) (G. E)

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Visual Arts (cod. 9071)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the workshop the student is able to organize and collect complex information in a coherent form, he can apply critical analysis methodologies on the visual arts. Can make appropriate use of the sources of information needed to deal with research in the various areas of the visual arts.


Course contents

The workshop will focus on the crucial importance (both theoretical and practical) of the historical-artistic Connoisseurship and on the close links between this and the photographs.

During the lessons will be examined several case studies, just to try to understand how an attribution or interpretation can be achieved through the analysis of photographs.

To do this we will be used various texts and the photo archive belonged to Carlo Volpe, pupil of Roberto Longhi, great connoisseur and former professor at the University of Bologna

This archive was acquired by the Istituto per i Beni Culturali (IBC) of Regione Emilia-Romagna and become a portion of the photo archive of the I. B. Supino library of the Department of Arts in 2006, Biblioteca delle Arti, section of visual arts I. B. Supino (ABIS) since 2020.

A few photographs concerning European art (painting, manuscript illumination, sculpture etc.) ca. 1200–1600 will be selected from the Volpe archive.

During the lessons will be done exercises for the recognition of works of art on the same photographic material selected from the Volpe archive or on other material provided by the teacher.

Will be done writing exercises of critical and historical texts on works of art.

Readings/Bibliography

For a general overview of the issues relating to the Connoisseurship, we recommend reading the following texts:

  • B. Berenson, Rudiments of Connoisseurship, in The Study and Criticism of Italian Art, London, 1902, pp. 111-148
  • E. Wind, Critique of Connoisseurship, in Art and Anarchy, London, 1963, pp. 30-46
  • G. Previtali, voce Attribuzione, in Arte 2, Enciclopedia Feltrinelli Fischer, 23, a cura di G. Previtali, 2 voll., Milano, 1971, I, pp. 56-60
  • E.H. Gombrich: Rhétorique de l’attribution. Reduction ad absurdum [1978], republished in Reflections on the History of Art: Views and Reviews, Oxford, 1987, pp.91-96
  • A. Conti, Roberto Longhi e l’attribuzione, in “Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia”, Serie III, Vol. 10, n. 3, 1980, pp. 1093-1117
  • C. Ginzburg, Spie Radici di un paradigma indiziario [1979], republished in Miti, emblemi, spie. Morfologia e storia, Torino, 1986, pp. 158-193
  • E. Castelnuovo, L’attribuzione e i suoi fan­ta­smi, in L’attribuzione teo­ria e pra­tica: sto­ria dell’arte, mu­si­co­lo­gia, let­te­ra­tura, atti del se­mi­na­rio di Ascona, 30 set­tem­bre - 5 ot­to­bre 1992, Cen­tro Ste­fano Fran­scini, a cura di O. Be­somi e C. Ca­ruso, Ba­si­lea, 1994, pp. 17–28
  • B. Toscano, L’attribuzione geostilistica, in in L’attribuzione teo­ria e pra­tica: sto­ria dell’arte, mu­si­co­lo­gia, let­te­ra­tura, atti del se­mi­na­rio di Ascona, 30 set­tem­bre - 5 ot­to­bre 1992, Cen­tro Ste­fano Fran­scini, a cura di O. Be­somi e C. Ca­ruso, Ba­si­lea, 1994, pp. 29-57

Specific necessary references for the selected photos will be provided during the lab.

 

 

Teaching methods

Lab activities: recognition tests, critical reading and interpretation of texts, projection of images, analysis of photographic material, writing catalogue notes of paintings and works of art

Assessment methods

There is no exam at the end of the lab. The proficiency will be recognized through compulsory class attendance. Due to the special character of the workshop, no more than 25 students can be enrolled in the course.


Teaching tools

Power point presentations, photographs held in the archive of Carlo Volpe, digital color photographs

Office hours

See the website of Giacomo Alberto Calogero

SDGs

Quality education

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.